page_title: Mowag
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Mowag / History
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: MOWAG Fourgon PTT kurze ausführung
context_page_description: MOWAG is a Swiss company which develops, designs and produces armoured vehicles for military applications in both land-only and amphibious configurations. These vehicles have gross vehicle weights ranging from 9 tonnes to 30 tonnes. The company is owned by General Dynamics, and is now known as GDELS-MOWAG.
context_section_description: The MOWAG GmbH (Motor Car Factory), originally MOWAG Motorwagenfabrik AG, was founded in 1950 as a privately owned company by engineer, Walter Ruf. During the past 50 years Mowag has concentrated on the development and production of specialised vehicles.
  Its initial success was the development and production of more than 1,600 troop carriers (Mowag T1 4×4) for the Swiss Army. Contracts for Germany followed, with 750 Mowag MR 8 series armoured wheeled vehicles produced for the German Bundesgrenzschutz (Federal Border Guard) (also later used by Spain), and built under licence in Germany. Further high-powered wheeled and tracked vehicle series were developed and manufactured for the world markets.
  MOWAG has built many different types of vehicles, such as ambulances, fire trucks (like the Mowag W300), dummy tanks, electric vehicles, scooters or tracked tanks. In the civilian sector, MOWAG has been particularly active in the construction of fire-fighting vehicles where several generations of emergency vehicles have been built on the Dodge pickups. Many models were based on factory designed firefighting trucks. In Germany, Mowag was well known for developing a four-wheel drive armoured car, that was built under licence from Thyssen and Bussing/Henschel. In 1963, vehicles for the Federal Border Guard (Bundesgrenzschutz = BGS), MOWAG's production ran for decades. MOWAG had from the beginning to the end of the 1960s, built addition military vehicles and civilian trucks. Among them were the heavy trucks, MOWAG M5-16F with four seats, front steering cabin and 16 tons total weight, tow hitch for a double axle trailer and a 149kW engine in the underfloor. The engine was mounted under the bed between the front and the rear axles. This allowed a compact design and low centre of gravity in the middle of the vehicle.
  In 1950, MOWAG produced 214 local official cars for the Swiss Post, the chassis of this small compact vehicle had sliding doors on each side. The truck for Swiss Post (PTT) MOWAG Einsatzfourgon of which 556 units were built from 1953 to 1988, had also an underfloor engine. The Furgeon were initially fitted with a V8 petrol engine, which was originally developed for a MOWAG tank. Later, diesel engines were installed. The yellow and silver vans had a door in the front of the vehicle on the passenger side, which made it possible to exit from the front if the trucks were parked very close together. On the driver's side was a conventional door. It was possible to get from the cabin into the cargo hold. Taking advantage of this fact, some people rebuilt the decommissioned Furgeons into campers. The Furgeons were equipped with a trailer hitch for 4 wheel trailers. MOWAG had developed a replacement vehicle for the Furgeon, but it remained only a pre-series of 22 Trucks, all used by the Swiss Post, as the Swiss Post bought foreign mass-produced series of vehicles.
  Besides regular trucks, MOWAG has built several generations of long iron transport trucks. A 8×4-driven four-axle truck with M8TK diesel engine with eight cylinders, 10.8 litres and 373kW and Allison automatic five-speed transmission, these are characterised by a very narrow central cab, with two seats. They were able to carry the load on the entire length of the vehicle using the space on the left and right side of the driver's cabin. The drivers compartment had a front entering door.
  Between 1965 and 1975, MOWAG built 170 electric trollies for the Swiss Post. In the 1980s, the products range had been increased by the development and construction of three-wheel and four-wheel electric vehicles. The hospitals, airports, municipalities, industrial companies and the post office came for a variety of their transportation tasks. Many more prototypes of electric cars were built, but none of these vehicles made it to market. For the Mirage IIIS and RS fighter aircraft of the Swiss Air Force, MOWAG and AEG worked together and built the aircraft tractor MOWAG-AEG. In the 1980s, MOWAG built vibratory rollers for road construction. Handheld double vibratory rollers were from 900kg to
caption: MOWAG Furgeon PTT
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